Permanency Tip of the Week: Living in a Family
All youth deserve the opportunity, with the right supports in place, to live in a loving family home. This can be very challenging for some of our Youth in foster care for a variety of reasons – especially significant impairments in social, emotional and behavioral functioning. We often run into a myriad of barriers when pursuing placement in a family home such as the age of the child, families declining placement and other professionals declaring that the child is “not ready” for a family. One barrier that we need to be alert to may actually reside within the Youth. We need to be able to step back and view the situation through a trauma / grief – loss lens. From this perspective, we can explore with the Youth their concerns related to living in a family. Given their traumatic and loss filled lives, it is easy to see why living in a family might be what produces in them the most excitement and the most fear.
Permanency Story of the Week:
‘Blended’ Photo Series Captures The Unconditional Love Between An Adopted Child And His Family
Photographer Kate T. Parker is one proud aunt. Her sister and brother-in-law adopted her 5-month-old nephew, Sam, in February 2014. But Parker knew she’d want to celebrate the newest member of the family in a special way from the beginning. “Throughout their entire adoption process, I knew I wanted to document whatever lucky baby we would welcome into our family,” she told The Huffington Post in an email.
In a photo series which she calls “Blended,” the Georgia-based photographer captures Sam’s first moments with his family. She explained that the project also documents “the power of love, the agonizing wait (and then elation) of adoption, the welcoming of another life into our clan, and what it means to be a biracial family.” Aside from showing off Sam’s adoption journey, his loving family and squish-worthy cheeks, Parker simply can’t get enough of him. “He’s the happiest, cutest baby on the planet,” she told HuffPost. “I feel so lucky to have that little man in my life.”
Current Permanency related articles:
Celia Center’s 2014 Conference – Facing Trauma with Truth
A conference dedicated to all members within the adoption and foster care community, and those serving this community by providing social services, case management, and mental health treatment! It’s going to be a great day!
Friday, November 7th, 2014 at the beautiful Luxe Sunset Hotel in Los Angeles
African-American Males in Child Welfare
According to data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), African-American males are more than twice as likely to be in foster care as their peers of other races, and the percentage of African-American males who age out of care almost doubled between 2001 and 2010 (from 7 percent to 13 percent). A recent report from the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), Changing Course: Improving Outcomes for African American Males Involved With Child Welfare Systems, reviews the current data and literature about African-American males involved with child welfare, outlines an approach to improve their outcomes, and makes recommendations for immediate action.
A year after being surrendered to H.B. firehouse, baby reunites with firefighters
“Attention staff, there is a visitor at the door.”
One year ago, it was in the wee hours of the morning when firefighter paramedic Chris Galbraith was awakened by the robotic voice of Huntington Beach Fire Station 6’s doorbell. After sleepily making his way to the front door, he was greeted by a woman carrying a newborn baby in a wicker basket. She handed it over to him, and just as he was able to comprehend what was going on, she turned and made her way back into the darkness. Staff temporarily named baby boy Edward after the street the station is on, which had just received its first and only safe surrender baby to date. On Monday morning, the baby returned with his adoptive mother, who wanted to meet the station staff and thank them for making their family possible.
Editor’s note: Nicole and Javier, who asked that their last name not be given for personal reasons, and their son Nathan returned to Huntington Beach Fire Station 6 on Monday, a year after Nathan was surrendered there, in a basket, and shortly after his birth (see story above). The couple adopted Nathan and wanted to meet the firefighters who cared for him briefly. Without a way to thank Nathan’s anonymous birth mother, Nicole wrote the attached letter.
Every child – Rita Soronen – Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption
Every child deserves a home. Yet the child welfare system does not have a sound record of developing best practices for serving children and youth waiting to be adopted who have been identified as “difficult to place” — older youth, children with mental or physical challenges, children in sibling groups, children of a minority culture or race and/or youth who identified as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transgendered (LGBT).
And we know that there is an elevated risk of these children aging out of care simply because of who they are, what they have experienced or the borders that define them.
For example, children self-identified as LGBT in the United States today remain at risk for intolerance, bullying, abuse and homelessness. One study found that more than 30 percent of LGBT youth reported suffering physical violence at the hands of a family member after coming out. The National Network of Runaway and Youth Services has estimated that 20-40 percent of youth who become homeless each year are LGBT. And of the more than 100,000 youth ages 12- 8 who are in foster care, an estimated 10 percent are LGBT.
Read about Jonathan – who was one of those children…
Former Foster Youth Take Politics Into Their Own Hands: Sokhom Mao
By Victor Valle- reporter at the Chronicle of Social Change – Sokhom Mao shows methe 11th floor of Oakland City Hall, where he chairs meetings for the Citizen’s Police Review Board, an entity that works between community members and police officers to ensure police accountability and improve police services. “For me, being raised on the lower end of the economic ladder, and now being the chairman of the Citizen’s Police Review Board on the 11th floor, really tells a tale,” said Mao. Only about 15 years ago, Mao was in the foster care system, jumping from group homes to transitional housing. Now, at 27, he is running for Oakland City Council, and hoping to use his years of policy and advocacy experience to take lead of the same area he was raised in.